2024

Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week so far. My day has been jam packed with very little reading time but I have managed a chapter of The Fires of Heaven. I really want to make a push with my Wheel of Time series challenge as I feel like I am falling behind and in danger of neglecting it.

My chosen book to feature this week is another relatively recent purchase but one I hope to read soon. I might even have it as a holiday read.

When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface he is forced to confront a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the physical likeness of a long-dead lover. Others suffer from the same affliction and speculation rises among scientists that the Solaris ocean may be a massive brain that creates incarnate memories, but its purpose in doing so remains a mystery . . .

Solaris raises a question that has been at the heart of human experience and literature for centuries: can we truly understand the universe around us without first understanding what lies within?

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The Weekly Brief

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good weekend. I managed to finish a book this weekend and have made good progress with The Fires of Heaven.

Blog Posts

Currently Reading

I have only read a couple of chapters of A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women but so far I am loving it.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Radclyffe Hall

Happy Friday!

I hope you all have some good books planned for the weekend.

My chosen poem for today is by the English poet and author Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall (1880-19430). Hall is best known for her novel The Well of Loneliness.

On the Hill-Side

A Memory

You lay so still in the sunshine,
So still in that hot sweet hour -
That the timid things of the forest land
Came close; a butterfly lit on your head, 
Mistaking it for a flower. 

You scarecly breathed in your slumber,
So dreamless it was, so deep -
While the warm air stirred in my veins like wine,
The air that had blown through a jasmine vine,
But you slept-and I let you sleep. 

Radclyffe Hall

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

24 Books in 2024 – Update

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I meant to do this post at the beginning of the month but I completely forgot.

I have been really trying to read the books on my list of 24 Books in 2024 with the aim of reducing my TBR list. Here is the post with the original list.

I have so far managed to read a total of 5 books off the list which is behind on where I would like to be but I am hoping to catch up. Reading hasn’t been going very well this year but I live in hope it will improve!

Books I have read

Just 19 books to go!

How are your book challenges going so far this year?

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Mid Week Quote: Louisa May Alcott

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I have had a lovely day where I have been for a glorious walk in the woods in the sunshine and I have managed a good amount of reading for a change.

My chosen quote this week is by one of my favourite authors Louisa May Alcott.

“I ask not for any crown
But that which all may win;
Nor try to conquer any world
Except the one within.”

Louisa May Alcott

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Goodreads Monday: 22/4/2024

Goodreads Monday is now hosted by Budget Tales Book Club. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.

Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. My day has been jam packed with teaching so not much reading has happened but I’m hoping to get more in tomorrow.

My chosen book to feature this week is another one that I have recently added to my Goodreads TBR. I am really enjoying reading George R. R. Martin’s books outside of The Song of Ice and Fire series, especially his science fiction.

From the multiple award-winning, best-selling author of The Song of Ice and Fire Haviland Tuf is an honest space-trader who likes cats. So how is it that, in competition with the worst villains the universe has to offer, he’s become the proud owner of the last seedship of Earth’s legendary Ecological Engineering Corps? Never mind, just be thankful that the most powerful weapon in human space is in good hands-hands which now control cellular material for thousands of outlandish creatures. With his unique equipment, Tuf is set to tackle the problems human settlers have created in colonizing far-flung hosts of hostile monsters, a population hooked on procreation, a dictator who unleashes plagues to get his own way… and in every case the only thing that stands between the colonists and disaster is Tuf’s ingenuity-and his reputation as an honest dealer in a universe of rogues… Tuf Voyaging interior illustrations by Janet Aulisio. Included will be her original eight illustrations, along with 28 newly commissioned ones.

Please drop me a link with your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

The Weekly Brief

Hello!

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. I have managed a bit of reading which is good but not as much as I would have liked.

Blog Posts

Currently Reading

I’ve been neglecting The Fires of Heaven so next week I am making an effort to really push through it. I’m still loving A Gentleman in Moscow.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Stacking the Shelves: 20/4/2024

Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Marlene of Reading Reality. It is all about sharing the books that you have recently added to your bookshelves. These books can be physical books, ebooks and of course audiobooks.

Hello!

I am really not doing well on the book buying at the moment. My resolution this year was to not buy too many books and this month I just haven’t been able to stop.

I went to Ironbridge this week and visited the second hand bookshop there and found a book that has been on my wish list for a long time. I have wanted to read this book for ages so now I have no excuse because I own a copy. It is also one of the books on my Classics Club list.

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

Friday Poetry: Philip Edward Thomas

Happy Friday!

I hope you all have some fab plans for the weekend. I’m hoping to get some reading done this weekend as I haven’t managed much this week.

My chosen poem this week is by the British writer of poetry and prose Philip Edward Thomas (1878-1917).

Tall Nettles

Tall nettles cover up, as they have done
These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough
Long worn out, and the roller made of stone:
Only the elm butt tops the nettles now.
This corner of the farmyard I like most:
As well as any bloom upon a flower
I like the dust on the nettles, never lost
Except to prove the sweetness of a shower. 

Philip Edward Thomas

Happy Reading

Etsy

If you enjoy reading my blog and would like to make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you

This and That Thursday

Hello!

I thought it was high time for a post about my escapades outside of reading. The Easter school holidays was rather busy for me as I took some time off teaching and went on some adventures.

Bath

We usually go to Bath at least once a year, usually more but we have never gone at this time of year so we thought we would see what it was like. It was busier than we are used to but it was still a fab little break. It also involved quite a bit of book buying.

It wasn’t all book buying though. We also had a lovely afternoon tea at the Pump Rooms, we visited the Ladybird exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery and we went to Dyrham Park just outside of Bath. We also did lots of walking and eating out.

Cambridge

I also visited Cambridge for the first time. I met up with my best friends and we had a good little explore. The weather was terrible so we had to do a lot of ducking out of the rain but we did manage some book shopping and we visited a very interesting museum. We also had great fun spotting all the giraffes!

Croft Castle and the Ironbridge Museum of the Gorge

We have also been doing some visiting closer to home. A couple of weeks ago we visited one of our favourites which is Croft Castle and today we visited a new place which was the Ironbride Museum of the Gorge. The Museum of the Gorge has only just recently reopened which is why we have never visited as we like to visit Ironbride. I also did a tiny bit of book shopping!

Happy Reading